Ruprecht von Kaufmann (born 1974 in Munich, Germany) studied painting and illustration at the Art Center College of Design in Los Angeles, United States. In addition to his work as a painter, von Kaufmann has taught at the Berlin University of Arts, the Hamburg University of Applied Sciences and the Academy of Fine Arts Leipzig. After stays in Los Angeles and New York, von Kaufmann has been living and working in Berlin since 2003.

The wide-ranging oeuvre of Ruprecht von Kaufmann includes painting, sculpture and works on paper. His focus is on painting, which reveals a preference for figuration and abstract elements. Ruprecht von Kaufmann's complex and mysterious pictorial worlds are located somewhere between reality and fiction, the possible and the impossible. In his works, the artist initiates a dialogue about modern men, their environment and human relationships. He subtly reflects our actions, thoughts and feelings in a society plagued by unrest. The results are scenes full of suggestive power, which emotionally involve the beholder. For several years now, von Kaufmann has been working with colored linoleum as a painting ground. In many of his paintings, he carves into the material with a linoleum knife. The process of destruction is thus an elementary component of his works. As a result, the different levels that come to the surface unfold an extraordinary three-dimensionality.

Ruprecht von Kaufmann’s works are represented in public and private collections, such as the Collection of Contemporary Art of the Federal Republic of Germany, the Art Collection of the Deutsche Bundesbank in Frankfurt, the Collection of the Kunstmuseum in Stuttgart, the Philara Collection in Düsseldorf, the AmC Collezione Coppola in Vicenza, the Ole Faarup Collection in Copenhagen and the Hildebrand Collection in Leipzig. Recent solo exhibitions include "Die Evakuierung des Himmels" at Kunsthalle Erfurt (2018), "Inside the Outside" at the UN Headquarter in New York (2019) and the Böttcherstrasse Museums in Bremen (2019) as well as "Die drei Prinzen von Serendip" at Kunstsammlung Neubrandenburg (2019). From November 2019 to September 2020, works by Ruprecht von Kaufmann could be seen in the group exhibition "Feelings" at the Pinakothek der Moderne in Munich. In 2019, a publication with the same name was published by Distanz Verlag on his series "Inside the Outside".

 

Ruprecht von Kaufmann, Paar auf dem Sofa, 2019, oil on linoleum on wood, 122 x 153 cm
Paar auf dem Sofa, 2019
oil on linoleum on wood, 122 x 153 cm